My Company

Some libertarian and conservative groups are talking about an alternative to the new Republican alternative to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Twila Brase, president of the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, posted a commentary backing H.R. 2900 – the Offering Patients True Individualized Options Now Act of 2013 bill.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a group that generally opposes government involvement in health care and is skeptical of direct insurance company involvement as well, has formally endorsed the 77-page bill.

The bill, cosponsored by Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., would repeal PPACA. The bill also would eliminate Medicare, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and would phase out the agency that runs those programs, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The bill would provide 100 percent deductibility for all health care and health insurance expenses; increase health savings account deductibility limits; replace Medicare with a premium payment assistance program; create a new tax credit for taxpayers who give money to hospitals and clinics to pay for indigent care; make it easier for groups to set up association health plans; and let a carrier licensed in one state to sell the coverage available in that state in any other state.

Other provisions would give doctors tax incentives for treating indigent patients and replace Medicaid and CHIP with state block grants.

Health insurance policies would have to meet home-state standards, and carriers that sold coverage across state lines would have to offer enrollees outside the home state access to an external coverage decision review system.

The bill has been sitting in the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee.

A number of other committees also share jurisdiction.

Republican senators also proposed a bill that would replace PPACA with a new system of tax credits but leave Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and CMS in place.

Broun, a medical doctor, says the United States needs free-market-based solutions to its health finance problems. Broun argues that getting the government out of health care would make health care better and cheaper even for people with pre-existing conditions.

AAPS Executive Director Dr. Jane Orient said in a statement about the endorsement that true health reform must start with repealing bad laws and rolling back failed policies.

The policies “have increasingly subjugated patient care to the interest of third parties and thwarted free market forces from providing a wealth of low-cost, high-quality medical care,” Orient said.